Especially for New Years Eve I jumped into the archives of Link Your Stuff and I searched for the most popular links of the past year. I can see on what links you've clicked the most, and the result of 2012 is in the picture above. Every month's most popular link is included. Below the picture you can see who's contribution it is and there's also a link to the corresponding blog post.So all I can say now is: have a wonderful New Years Eve and have a great and creative 2013! 'Till next year!

The previous whale I made (click here to read about that one) was pretty big, especially when you compare it with this one. This one fits in your hand easily and is very suitable to become a keychain. I found the pattern here. The owner of this pattern used 6mm eyes I believe, but I've used these 12mm eyes. The Dutch translation of the pattern is here. Where this whale went? I've send it to one of the Kanjers of Post voor Kanjers (an organisation that collects post cards for children who are hospitalized and are very very ill). If you want to read more about it, click here. For more charity projects click here.

Bees! As long as they don't sting they're fun, especially when they are crocheted. I made this bee a few times already. I love to make them because it isn't hard and the result is pretty. The pattern? That's over here. It's in English so if you're Dutch or German you might need to use this translation scheme. Did you know that the UK crochet terms differ from the US crochet terms? You can see that very clearly in the translation schme. Most pattern are written in US terms, but sometimes they are not. You won't be the first who gets mistaken. How you can tell a pattern is in US terms or in UK terms? If you're lucky there's a note with the pattern, but if there isn't... then it's just a matter of giving it a try. The pattern of this bee is the US version. I've used these eyes for my bee, this crochet hook and Drops Paris because it's my favourite cotton. Good luck!

Are you having a nice Christmas? For those of you who have the time to crochet this Christmas here's a sweet pattern. I made these two sheep for my niece, but I really enjoyed making them so I'm probably going to make a lot more. You make this sheep in one piece, so if you look at the pattern and feel like it's incomplete, it's not. You can find the English pattern here, the translation to Dutch is below. I've made them with Phildar Aviso White and Denim. I used 4mm eyes and I sewed a little nose on the sheep. I wish you all a very merry Christmas!

I haven't been able to do a lot of crochet lately. Well actually, I did a lot of crochet but not a lot of things that I can show you right now because they were all meant for my new book. And that's supposed to be a bit of a surprise ;-) At this point, everything I have to do for the book is almost done, so now I can start working on other projects. Today I started looking for a last-minute Christmas pattern when I ran into this gorgeous wreath. Not exactly a last-minute project, but oh so pretty! I'll definitely put it on my wishlist for next year and maybe not for Christmas but for Easter. Or just for no reason and for fun. You can find the pattern here on the blog of Kate of Greedy For Colour. Oh and don't forget to enter the giveaway below!

It's time for the last giveaway of the year, and this time it's a really good one! De Wolboetiek is giving away a gift card of 50 euros that you can spend in their webshop. You can find their shop here and as you can see they have a wonderful collection with lovely yarn, a lot of pretty crochet- and knitting books and really helpful free patterns. Ofcourse De Wolboetiek has an own facebook-page and they deserve the amount of likes they already have and they should get lots more! So what do you have to do to win this gift card? Leave a comment below and tell me what you would choose from their webshop and what you would make out of it. Give it your best try, because this giveaway deserves that and creative as you all are I think you can make something special out of this comment. But then there's a little twist: there have to be at least 250 comments before the gift card is going to someone! So make sure to share this blog post by blogging about it or by tweeting about it. We have to be able to get 250 comments don't we? I'll announce the winner this Saturday. Good luck!

There's another giveaway on my blog and the person who's going to give something away this time is Annemarie Arts! She's the author of a few very succesfull Dutch books from Forte Publishers (click here for an interview with her and an overview of her books), and I really appreciate it that my namesake is willing to do a giveaway on my blog. Annemarie this week also announced that in the Spring of 2013 her new book is going to be published. Read all about that on her Facebook-page. But you probably wonder what Annemarie is going to give away? She giving away not 1, not 2, not 3... no she's going to give away 10 lovely packages! In every package you'll find a crochet pattern of Sam de Notenkraker and a DIY package making labels. You can find examples of them in her webshop. You can find some lovely cotton there and very pretty crochet patterns that she designed. Do you want to win a package like that? Then leave a comment below. I'll announce the winners this Saturday. Good luck!

Perhaps you'd already seen it on the facebook-page of Forte Uitgevers: I'm working on my second book! It's going to be published in the spring of 2013 and the topic is Crochet Garlands. It's going to be a super fun book, and I'm already very proud of it :-) As soon as there is any news about it I'll let you know. Do you want to be totally up to date about alle crochet books that are coming up? Then like the facebook-page of Forte Uitgevers here. The garland on the picture above comes from my fist crochet book, Filethaken voor Beginners (click here).

Are you looking for Christmas patterns as well? There are a lot of patterns on the internet, it's just a matter of searching really good sometimes. Below you'll find a list with links to websites with cute patterns. The link to the pattern of the mouse above is here (just scroll down a bit).

I've always loved to crochet little animals, and that's why this book caught my eye immediately. There are 15 cute patterns in it. The writer made two books, this one and this one. The second one is not available in Dutch unfortunately, but luckily there's enough to crochet with the first one :-) As far as I can see it has never been publised in English. The Dutch book is available here in de Haakfactory (my Dutch webshop).

When I saw this knitted bear on Pinterest I thought: the world needs a crochet version of him. So I tried to crochet this little bear. What do you think of him? Is he good enough to share the pattern? Well, good or not, here it is :-) I crocheted this little bear with Phildar Coton 3.

4. SC20, but pull up the other colour at the second loop of every SC. Just leave both colours on the ball of yarn, don't fasten off after every stitch. Fasten off at the end of the row. Leave a long white thread because you'll need it to make the head. Don't forget to do a turning chain at the end.

With red

5. t/m 11. 20SC, chain 1.

With white (this will be the head)

12. t/m 19. 20SC, chain 1.

Fasten off after the last row. Leave a long thread. Now pull the white yarn-end through the needle and pull the thread through every other stitch of the top row. Pull the thread firmly. Now fold the back and go down the same way towards the red part. Fill the head with fyberfill. Now take the white thread that you left in row 4 and pull it through every other stitch of the bottom white row. Pull the thread and make sure that the stuffing stays in the head. Fasten off the white threads and make sure everything is closed tightly. Now pull the red thread through the needle and close the red part. Pull the thread through every other stitch of the bottom row as well and pull the thread firmly. Don't forget to stuff the rest of the bear before you close it.

Ears (make 2)

1. Chain 4.

2. Do 1 slip stitch in the 2nd chain from your hook, do 2DC in the next chain, do 1 slip stich in the last chain. Fasten off.|

Arms and legs

1. Chain 4, attach the first chain to the last with a slip stitch.

2. Do 1SC in every chain and keep doing SC untill you've done 20SC in total. You have to count the SC that you did in the slip stitches as well. Fasten off.